Soon after starting college at The New School for Jazz, Bello realized that with music as a career, he needed to create his own opportunities and success. With this knowledge, Bello started to post videos of his music to Instagram in 2018. Since then, he has grown a following of over 59k people who are eager to hear his original music. Through Instagram, Bello has met and recorded with multiple artists including, Teddy Swims, Austin Kolbe and many others.

Since the beginning of his musical journey, Bello has been bringing his comedic personality and unique style into everything he does. With each day, his goal is to make someone smile and this shines through with the music he plays and creates.

In this interview, taken during the NAMM Show in January 2020, we talked about:

How he’s built a large following on social media

How he makes the transition from the practice room to the stage

The best goal to have as a performer

His mindset for playing at jams

How to perform for your audiences

How he approaches altissimo – he shares the exact fingerings he uses

How he performs split tones

His latest single at the time, Candy

And so much more!

“It’s not how many notes you play, it’s how you play the notes” Augie Bello

This week, I had the pleasure of interviewing saxophonist and author, Katja Rieckermann.

We had done an interview at NAMM, but the noise level was so out of control, we decided to do a separate interview now.

Katja, originally from the northern part of Germany in a small town called Luebeck, did not start playing the saxophone until age 21. It took a number of years and a bit of a struggle until she made the leap to move to the U.S. and in particular, Los Angeles, CA.

She has performed with rock bands Scorpions and Saga, and has been in television and films like Ally McBeal and Star Trek Nemesis.

In 2001, she got the opportunity to perform with Rod Stewart on his Human World Tour, and continued performing with him for 15 more years.

Since then, she has also performed with Carole King, Al Green, Jeff Goldblum, Carlos Santana, Mary J. Blige, Toto and many others.

She has 3 studio albums out, with guest artists such as Arturo Sandoval and Joe Bonamassa. One of her big singles, Walkin’ the Dog did well on the charts in 2015.

She’s performed with Lady Gaga at the Grammy Awards and also opened up for Tower of Power in Pasadena in 2019.

In this interview, we talked about:

Katja’s journey starting the saxophone in her early 20’s

How she started her performance career from nothing when she moved from Germany to Los Angeles

Tips for networking in a new location

What it was like touring with mega star Rod Stewart for almost 15 years

Her approach to playing recorded solos vs creating her own

Katja’s solo career, and how it has evolved

Her process for creating her 101 Soulful Funk Licks book, and you’ll hear her demo some of the cool licks

And much more!

We did this interview while being sheltered in place, so you will also hear how she’s handling that too.

Today’s guest is non-other than the young phenom, Alex Hahn, a multi-award winning saxophonist, educator and composer based in Los Angeles, California.

He recently won 1st place at the Michael Brecker International Saxophone Competition, graduated with his 2nd masters from the prestigious Thelonius Monk Institute, performed and studied with Herbie Hancock, and recorded on Michael Bublé’s last two Grammy Nominated albums.

He is a 6-Time Downbeat Magazine Award Winner, 3-Time Next Generation Jazz Festival Outstanding Soloist, 1st Place Winner in the North American Saxophone Alliance Jazz Saxophone Competition, and winner of the Perform with Mintzer International Saxophone Competition.

Alex has taught all over the world including the Panama Jazz Festival, Sitka Jazz Festival, and at International Jazz Day in Havana,Cuba and St. Petersburg, Russia.

Chris Potter has said of Alex: “Alex has a real melodic gift in his writing and playing”

Having been born in Canada, grown up in Nigeria, studied music at University of North Texas, and touring in places such as Siberia, Jeff Antoniuk, truly brings a world-wide experience to his performance and teaching.

Jeff has performed with Tim Hagans, Sherrie Maricle, Ingrid Jensen, Walt Weiskopf and Marcus Miller. He has fronted his own bands as a performer and composer, winning accolades from JazzTimes Magazine.

Jeff is a well-respected educator, having conducted over 2500 jazz masterclasses all over the world. He started the Maryland Summer Jazz Camp 15 years ago, and is the founder and creator of JazzWire.net, an online jazz education learning resource and community for adult amateur jazz players.

We had the most fun conversation!

In this interview, we talked about:

What Jeff thinks about when he tries out ligatures

Accessories and how they affect our playing, both mentally and physically

The biggest benefits from online learning

How he determines his rubric for teaching adult students in his JazzWire.net community

Saxophonist, composer, educator Derek Brown, has performed over 200 international shows and in every state in the US as part of his Fifty-Fifty tour. He has well over 30 million social media views of his unique and revolutionary way of playing the saxophone, and has been featured on NPR’s Weekend Edition.

We featured Derek for our very first episode here on the Everything Saxophone Podcast. You can find that episode on our site, saxophonepodcast.com and wherever you listen to podcasts.

Donna caught up with Derek at the NAMM 2020 show in Anaheim for a brief interview and a special performance.

In this interview, we talked about:

Derek’s latest projects, and how he has been able to be so innovative amongst all the noise out there

How Derek created a true way to articulate triple tonguing on the saxophone

His approach to composing for Solo Sax and for big bands

And more

In addition to listening to the podcast, you can also watch the interview on our YouTube channel by clicking HERE or on the picture below

Rajiv was the saxophonist for the eclectic band, Kids These Days, and released an EP that garnered praise from the chicago Tribune, NY Times and Huffington Post.

Rajiv has also won awards as a solo artist, having placed 2nd in the Saxophone Idol competition sponsored by Keilworth in 2013. He also took 2nd place in the 2014 Taichung International Saxophone Competition in Taiwan.

He has performed and recorded with artists such as Jennifer Hudson, Chance the rapper, Ernie Watts and many others.

Rajiv is a Key Leaves artist, and we got the chance to chat at the Key Leaves booth at the NAMM 2020 Show.

Jody Espina is the founder, president and designer of JodyJazz Saxophone & Clarinet Mouthpieces. He is a highly regarded Jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, and flutist with a unique and personal sound and is also a respected Jazz educator.

He has taught in High Schools and Colleges in the United States and Spain, but because of the tremendous success of his mouthpieces, had to give up full-time teaching to devote all his time to his company.

Jody still gives Master Classes and Clinics all over the world on subjects such as sound production, practice techniques and improvising.

Jody has done studio work, performed in the pit Orchestras on Broadway, and performed live with artists such as Mel Torme, Milton Berle, Lew Soloff, Dave Douglas and many others.

He studied mouthpiece design with the legendary Santy Runyon for many years.

JodyJazz.com enjoys the highest rating among saxophone mouthpiece companies on the World Wide Web.(as rated on Alexa.com) As a player Jody knows the importance of intimately knowing the products that he is making and selling that is why in addition to Jody, the JodyJazz crew includes three working professional recording saxophonists.

In this interview, we talked about:

The 20th Year Celebration Platinum DV limited edition series mouthpieces

Chika Inoue, has been praised for her beautiful tone, acute sensitivity and virtuosic technique. She has received numerous performance awards in competitions, lavishing praise as a soloist and chamber musician. Chika has performed internationally at major venues, appearing as soloist and chamber musician in the United States, Germany, Italy, China, and Japan.

Chika transcribes and performs works beyond the standard classical repertoire, performing works of violin, clarinet, oboe, flute, voice and piano, expanding the limits of the saxophone technique and artistry.

A native of Osaka, Japan, Chika spent most of her youth in Frankfurt, Germany and San Diego, California.

She is currently on faculty at Los Angeles City College as well as the California State University, Dominguez Hills.

Chika is endorsed by Vandoren, Selmer, Key Leaves, and LeFreque.

In this interview, we talked about:

How to shape your sound to create color/timbre

Why singing her piano parts helped her overall musicality

Her #1 tips for saxophone students of all ages

The difference between projecting your sound for classical performances vs. popular music

The benefits and problems of having perfect pitch

Repertoire recommendations

The benefits of transcribing classical music from other instruments

And more

“You can do so much with just 1 tone”

Resources mentioned:

Ryō Noda is a Japanese composer and musician who has written several works for classical saxophone.